Media's Handling of Thatchers Death - Small comparison within.

I have heard some intellectual criticism of Thatcher’s policies on the BBC – but it was on World Service radio – specifically criticising her
deregulation of the banking industry - stating that the seeds of the 2008 banking collapse were sown on her watch.

However, it would seem that the BBC has paid heed to what must have been a deluge of criticism after yesterday’s extremely bias reporting of her
life and her achievements because today, I note, that they are at least making mention of some of the damage her policies caused.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that we live in a country which, purportedly, values the right to free speech – and that as such people are
perfectly entitled to give voice to, and express, their contempt against the direction that Thatcher’s policies led this country.

People might think she’s being blamed for almost everything wrong with this country today and point to Blair’s time in office – but Blair was a
true blue Thatcherite (remember he was asked who his political idol was and, as leader of the labour party, he named Margaret Thatcher). His reign
was an emulation and continuation of her policies.

As has been noted by commentators on the BBC site the planned ceremonial funeral for her next Wednesday is simply asking for trouble and is almost
comically ironic given the woman’s disdain for public financing....but then she did request it when she was alive.

Originally posted by dodgygeeza
I cannot express how disgusting it is to see people celebrating the death of an old lady, many of those celebrants being just out of school and having
not even been even a twinkle in their parent's eyes when she left power.

Regardless of her politics (of which I was against for the record), she was still loved as a mother, sister and aunt and to celebrate and wish her
hell is foul beyond words. I truly hope that I do not hate anyone as much as some people seem to be capable of.

she wasn't the lovable old lady from around the way that gave candy to kids etc etc

she ruined thousands no 10's of thousands of lives all across britian she will be remembered as a tryanical bitch

I've already posted my thoughts in another thread but I think the reason people's opinion's will remain so polarised on Margaret Thatcher is that
she had no compassion and cared little for the collateral damage she caused to society.

Perhaps if she'd even appeared to have cared she may have been remembered somewhat differently?

Your right nobody wants to work for nothing ....However...someone working for

minimum wage 35/40 hours a week comes out NO better off than someone

on benefits, who has their *benefits* plus payment of *rent* and *council tax*paid too

(the biggest outlays for the domestic budget)

*Benefits* were never intended to be a way of life only a safety net!

Easy way to solve this? Bring in a liveable wage. No one can live off of £53/£71 a week, you cant possibly cut benefits any thinner. Pay people a
proper wage that rises in line with inflation. Stop abusing the working poor and trying to get them to face off against the minority on welfare.

Well people have been celebrating where I live. I'm a bit to young to be aware of what was going on with Thatcher in the 80's so I don't have any
great amount of emotion invested in her either way.
What I do think is interesting is the company she kept.

Her closest adviser Sir Peter Morrison who has been linked to the Bryn alyn child abuse scandal;

A former Tory Minister last night made incendiary claims that one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest aides was implicated in one of the most harrowing
child abuse scandals of recent times.

Rod Richards, a former Conservative MP and ex-leader of the Welsh Tories, made the shocking allegation that he had seen evidence linking Sir Peter
Morrison to the North Wales children’s homes case, in which up to 650 children in 40 homes were sexually, physically and emotionally abused over 20
years.

.....That was when he first met Margaret Thatcher, recently elected leader of the Conservative Party. He became one of her closest and most devoted
advisers and Conservative Party treasurer throughout her period in office, from 1979 to 1990. She made him a life peer, Baron McAlpine of West Green
in Hampshire, in 1984. He is remembered as perhaps the most effective political fund raiser of his generation, helping to bankroll three successful
general election campaigns.

And finally, her good friend Jimmy ( confirmed child abuser, frequent visitor to children's homes and hospitals and friend to royalty) who she
celebrated 11 Christmases with at Chequers;

He explains that his connections with Stoke Mandeville Hospital - a few miles from Chequers - have allowed him to form these relationships, and that
his friendship with Margaret Thatcher was particularly cordial. "The hospital and Chequers are four miles apart and we are their neighbours," he
said. "We have a suite of rooms to take VIPs from Chequers. .....
He told Esquire: "I knew the real woman and the real woman was something else. The times I spent up there [Chequers] - Denis, me and her, shoes off in
front of the fire."

In another interview, he claimed he turned up at Chequers covered with Christmas decorations, including a bell, and the Iron Lady quipped: "You can
ring my bell."

I don't understand this "Do not speak ill of the dead" business that some people pull out...

I was reading a thread on Thatcher on another forum and the same retort kept coming from the mouths of Thatcher supporters until I directed them to
the running "Chavez dead" thread and these very people happily "speak ill of the dead" in that thread.

So again, it all comes down to politics and we are all hypocrites.

Just because someone has died does not mean they are now eternally free of criticism as far as I'm concerned.

I grew up in the 80's, so I remember her. I absolutely hated her with a passion, not just her but the entire establishment. Yet the same
establishment is still there, partying over her death seems far too little far too late. It is cowardly in a lot of respects. That is what dissapoints
me about Briton and the British, yes minors fought the police and we had riots here and there, but considering how many people she and he cohorts
robbed of a future there should have been literally millions in the streets back in the 80's, not a few thousand here and there.

This death comes at a very strange time in Briton, very strange timing indeed, as the current Tory Government could not have been closer to thatchers
mentality. You would nearly swear she picked Cameron herself personally. On top of that we are going through the same cutting to the bone, we had in
the 80's, except I dread it will be worse now than then, far, far, far worse. there is not even an opposition, as the so called Labor party is now
from the same elitist oxbridge establishment, with no connection to the actual real masses. all the political leaders are from London, born and bred,
completely disconnected from the rest of the UK in their mentality. this too is far worse than the 80's as we the people have no one to speak on our
behalf, the Labor leadership is beyond an insult.

There are many millions more in the population now than there were in the early 80's. Large chunks of our country were robbed of steady work and put
onto the merry go round of temporary and very low paid jobs and benefits. Employers were given a free ride to exploit workers to the hilt. So many
millions were put on a knifes edge of poverty and just staying above water, the people she sent teetering on the edge for the last 30 years will
surely fall off it now, will Briton's wake up then? I doubt it, but the people do need a short sharp shock to get them rattled, it's long over due
they woke the hell up.

Before her reign you never seen people sleeping in the streets, nor did you see people walking past people in the street as though it was normal.
Thats the legacy she created. A culture of "every man for himself", she once said there was no such thing as society, and she was dead on, but only
because she smashed it.

And thats it, the country is so fractured, people are so in it for themselves, that we as a nation will never unburden ourselves from the puppet
masters, the few who demonstrate will be beaten down by the riot police, because the majority will sit back as always, even though its the same
majority that are the ones who have lost the most, but they can turn on easterners and xfactor and forget their reality...and England's dreamin.

Your right nobody wants to work for nothing ....However...someone working for

minimum wage 35/40 hours a week comes out NO better off than someone

on benefits, who has their *benefits* plus payment of *rent* and *council tax*paid too

(the biggest outlays for the domestic budget)

*Benefits* were never intended to be a way of life only a safety net!

yes, jobs were ment to be a way of life, "a job for life", had been the culture of the working classes, thats what generations of people knew as
life, fathers, grand fathers, great grand fathers. So when someone like Maggie comes along and pulls the rug from under people the next generation has
no clue what to do, because their dads worked in industries..how were people ment to go from that over night into paper pushing in office jobs, by the
way the vast majority of which are completely pointless and mind numbing and soul destroying. Oh and temporary and low paid.

On top of that there never were enough office or service industry jobs to go around, its a bare faced lie, nor is everyone who comes from generations
of manual workers in heavy industries or factories cut out for that type of work.

The point you fail to recognized was people who have generational attitude to work cannot simply adapt and change to a completly different way of life
over night or even over a generation, to think they could or even should is outrageous. Your also talking about a working class that rightly or
wrongly had pride in work, pride in doing a hard days work. Where is the pride in pushing paper? where is the pride in knowing your on a temporary
insecure contract, with a 100 year mortgage over your head? People like you just don't get it. there is more self respect in taking benefits for
many, and excluding themselves from the slave wagery, we currently call work, because at least they feel like they are not being completely exploited,
even though people on benefits are all too aware they are indeed having the p155 taken, with their 60 odd quid dole money and ghettoized
neighborhoods, but it would be taken even more if they worked for the privilege. and worked for what? To make a boss rich and F all all else.

Stop the presses, we have the worlds best economist here to solve all the problems!

You see, the issue with raising minimum wages is that it fuels inflation, through higher costs as a result of higher pay and also by having more money
in the economy, driving up demand. You won't ever solve this issue by simply "upping the wages", the problem will still be there and in 5 years
time you'll be saying "up the wages" again... It just pushes up the cost of living for everyone, effecting those on low pay the worst.

You know the difference between now and pre-Thatcher? Those "working class" poor didn't have all the luxuries we waste our money on today, this is
why they got by. They didn't have mobile phones, cable TV, two cars to run, foreign holidays. The problem with many at the low end of the pay scale
is they want these things so they get them, then complain the cost of living is too high, without it ever occurring to them to try and live within
their means and better themselves so they can have it in the future - damn it, they want it now!!!

. My sister is a prime example. She is on benefits, her BF works cash in hand, they have their rent/council tax paid and also get al the other fluff..
They have cable TV, a 50" 3D plasma, a Range rover and drink to excess every night of the week. But they still complain about these benefit cuts and
crying about "how are they going to make ends meet?" - maybe try cutting out the two bottles of wine per night, that's a good start - cut out the
TV sub, get a smaller car? People have to live within their means, but as a society we have got used to the instant gratification that we simply
cannot fathom it.

The problem is complex, simply waving a magic wand at it and uttering the phrase "Agracadabra - there is some cash" won't solve anything.

The Margeret Thatcher working class had the bare minimal. My own parents were working class in her era. And I remember we always ate the same foods,
we had electric and very basic funiture. No holidays, no trips out to other places, no 100s of toys, no gadgets, no anything really. If Im honest it
was pretty bad but then my parents had little education, no direction, and didnt intend on working hard , didnt even get on lol...

We had the basics. We had a roof over our heads. And we survived.

Anyway when I went to school I was shocked at the luxuries other kids had, and I realised it was due to two things ->

Their parents worked hard
And their parents were usually married ( although many not for long )

I was also told that Margeret Thatcher made it possible for the working classes to buy their homes.

The Job for life era was good. It meant security. Altho back it was alot easier to get a job, you didnt need CVs . I hate CVs, whats thats all about?
I mean do the job and see if your any good. Then get hired or fired.
It puts people off when they have to have masses of education just to get a very basic job.

Same here - the only time we went abroad was when my Dad was posted. We had one, tiny, black and white TV in the early 80's, only upgrading to colour
when we got to Germany (and the Army had their own Cable TV station too). I remember power cuts, waiting for the coal truck to arrive to heat the
house etc....

And yes, Maggie was the one who made it possible for anyone to own their own home, something which no Government had done before, even Labour ones..

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.